Server Cabinet Ideas

[Brent E. Green]

I am looking for some creative storage rack/cabinet ideas for protecting
a couple mini-tower sized servers that are kept in a storage room at our
church. We currently have one server kept inside a locked wood
(pressboard) computer work center (maybe you could call it a computer
armoire). If the monitor is accidentally left on, the server overheats
since there isn't enought ventilation in the cabinet.

We will be introducing an additional server and need to come up with a
new lockable rack/cabinet solution. I have considered buying a metal
cabinet from officemax (approx $180) and butchering it up in my
toolshop. I considerred cutting large rectangles in the sides and
welding in expanded metal screen.

Does anyone else have any creative ideas to keep a server safe on a budget?

Thanks
Brent

 

[Ralph Wade Phillips]

Howdy!

We will be introducing an additional server and need to come up with a
new lockable rack/cabinet solution. I have considered buying a metal
cabinet from officemax (approx $180) and butchering it up in my
toolshop. I considerred cutting large rectangles in the sides and
welding in expanded metal screen.

Does anyone else have any creative ideas to keep a server safe on a

budget?

The metal cabinet sounds OK. What !I! would do is to make some
openings at the bottom of the doors and rail them so that I could slip in
some disposable A/C filters, then at the top, put holes and grills to fit a
pair of 6" or 8" 120VAC / 240VAC fans. If you use 120VAC fans, wire them
in series. If 240s, wire them in parallel - and run them off of 120VAC.

This will suck in cooler air through the filters (change them once a
month, oftener if they get dirty looking enough), and exhaust the hot air
out the top.

I'd ALSO ditch that CRT, and get an LCD.

Don't forget a good KVM so that you have one keyboard / mouse /
monitor connected.

And, last but not least ... put a hasp and padlock that sucker when
it's supposed to be locked B)

Oh - bolt it to the floor so that nobody can steal the whole rack.

You CAN buy racks like that, and put the two machines either in the
bottom, or else on a shelf or two inside the rack (two towers can typically
sit side by side on a rack shelf, BTW).

RwP